


Desert Fishing

by crookedmen



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Steve Carlsberg is Not a Jerk, general silliness, the brothers in law have a day out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24312838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedmen/pseuds/crookedmen
Summary: Cecil and Steve have their first boys outing as friends and both try their very best
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	Desert Fishing

‘’Honey, you’ll be fine,’’ Carlos reassured his husband as Cecil pulled his socks and shoes on. ‘’You’ve been looking forward to this.’’

‘’I have, I have, but I’m still nervous. Steve and I have never spent this time much together.’’

‘’I know it’s daunting,’’ Carlos said. His curls fell across Cecil’s face as he bent down and kissed him. ‘’But you’ll have fun.’’

‘’I hope so…’’

Cecil gave Carlos one last kiss goodbye and headed out towards Steve Carlsberg’s.

As he knocked on the door, he squeezed his hands together and smiled. ‘’Cecil!’’ Steve said brightly as he pulled open the door, giving Cecil a one-armed hug (his idea of reserved) and clapping him on the back a little harder than intended. Steve was a couple inches taller than his brother-in-law, and about three times as brawny. 

‘’Hi, Steve,’’ Cecil spluttered, gingerly hugging him back. 

Steve quickly called into the house to say goodbye to Abby and slammed the door shut. He and Cecil stood on the doorstep, smiling at each other.

‘’So,’’ Cecil said, hoping it would kick-start his brain into finishing the thought. When that failed, he kept talking anyway. ‘’So… Steve. Steve-o. We- uh. We’re hanging out.’’

To his incredible relief, Steve laughed and gently punched Cecil’s arm. ‘’It’s okay, Cecil. I already had a few ideas about what we could do.’’

‘’You did?’’

‘’Oh, you know! I’ve had them on the backburner for a while. Just a few adverts around town I’ve seen and thought ‘hey! I reckon Cecil would enjoy that!’. So I kept them in mind.’’  


Cecil had enough tact to not ask quite how long Steve had been planning things for he and his brother-in-law to do, on the off chance he one day stopped hating him.

‘’That’s great, Steve. What did you have in mind?’’

‘’I thought we could go fishing!’’

‘’Fishing?’’

‘’Well,’’ he timidly reasoned, ‘’I’ve heard it’s a thing brothers do.’’

Brothers. Cecil had never h- no. Cecil liked the idea of Steve as a brother, that was it.

‘’But we live in a desert.’’

‘’Hah, don’t I know it! But I planned it all out. See, since I’m on the PTA, I can tell you that the school swimming pool is currently closed due to a more than slight piranha outbreak. I think the Glow Cloud dropped them in there.’’

‘’ _All hail_.’’

‘’ _All hail_. So, what do you say? It’d be doing the kids a real favour if we could get rid of them. And we’d be doing some real life fishing. I’m pretty sure that’s all fishing is, right?’’

Steve shrugged, chuckling. He hid it well, but Cecil could tell there was still a glint of worry in his eyes, just in case Cecil laughed at him. 

‘’Absolutely. Best fishing Night Vale can offer,’’ Cecil grinned, watching Steve’s face light up. 

The trip over to the pool was filled with Steve showing off the fishing rod’s he’d made specially. To call them rods was perhaps a misconception, Cecil thought. Maybe this is what fishing nets looked like? They were barbed, with nails hammered into them for extra measure, and the chain-link mesh was impervious to even the most tenacious bites. 

‘’Wow, those are really something,’’ Cecil said, and he meant it.

‘’Thanks, Cecil. Let’s hope they work. But if not, I bet they’d be grateful for them down at the antiques mall.’’

‘’That’s a neat idea! You are a very community-minded man, aren’t you Steve?’’

‘’I sure try to be! But I think you surpass me on that,’’ Steve beamed.

‘’It’s not a competition. …Although if it was, I would definitely win. But this is something we have in common! Isn’t that great?’’ 

‘’It’s real nice. See? I knew we’d get along really.’’

. . .

‘’I- I got it! I- oh no….’’

‘’Steve, you do know you’re meant to keep the piranhas inside the net, right?’’

‘’Hahah, teasing me ‘cause you love me again, Cecil?’’

‘’You got it. And hey, you’re making it too easy!’’

Cecil reached over awkwardly and gave Steve a punch on the arm, nearly slipping in as he did so. Steve laughed and steadied him with a thick, strong arm before going back to clinging onto his net with blistering intensity. His knuckles were white and every vein in his hands was raised. Cecil couldn’t look over too often, or he’d burst out laughing. 

‘’You’re overthinking this,’’ he offered. 

‘’Ah, I think you’re right,’’ replied Steve with a sigh. ‘’Every time one goes near me, I get excited, and yank my net up too early. It’s just too fun, this fishing business.’’

There was a pause in conversation as Steve pondered something.

‘’Hey,’’ started Steve, and Cecil bit his lip sheepishly at what he knew was coming. ‘’Exactly how many piranhas have you caught?’’

‘’About that…’’

‘’None?!’’

‘’I’m-‘’ Cecil snorted, fighting back laughter. ‘’I’m not strong enough to haul the net up.’’

‘’Oh boy, why didn’t you tell me?’’

‘’I was too embarrassed!’’

‘’Too proud more like.’’

‘’What, too proud to admit that Steve Carlsberg is stronger than me?’’

‘’Exactly that!’’

‘’I could lift this net right now.’’

‘’Could not. Go on, then.’’

Cecil narrowed his eyes and fixed the net with a steely glare. _Come on Cecil. Just pretend you’re saving Carlos. Oh Gods, Carlos drowning in the swimming pool? That’d be awful! Carlos- I’m coming-_

With a primal scream Cecil yanked the net up and sent it hurling into Steve’s face.

. . .

It took doctors several hours to prize the accidental weapon from an unconscious Steve, with Cecil babbling and fretting all the way.

‘’Who even let this guy in?’’ asked a nurse.

‘’Don’t you recognise his voice? He’s the Community Radio guy,’’ replied another. ‘’They let him in anywhere in the hopes he does a story on ‘em.’’

‘’Maybe he’ll do a story about us. He looks kind of distracted though.’’

‘’Oh Steve, I’m so sorry! You look worse than that time you got re-educated,’’ said Cecil to his brother-in-law’s unresponsive face. The doctor had already told Cecil that Steve could not hear him, and he didn’t have a clue where he was or what was going on. And that was before he'd been given the sedatives. 

Cecil was eventually shooed into a waiting room, leaving him with the task he had been dreading. The dial tone rang against his ear like a funeral bell. Just as he was getting his hopes up- the call was answered.

‘’Cecil?’’ came the voice from the other end of the line.

Cecil put on his best, most cheerful voice. ‘’Hey, Abby!’’

Down the hall, the nurses were keeping an eye on Steve.

‘’I just took my smoke break,’’ said one. ‘’The radio guy was getting chewed out by someone on the phone real bad. He was properly sweating and everything.’’

‘’Man,’’ replied the other. ‘’That means his next show is gonna be existential as hell. I just want to listen to the Community Calendar without being forced to contemplate my own existence.’’

‘’But this Thursday is National Contemplate Your Own Existence Day.’’

‘’Ah, shit. I missed last week’s show.’’ The nurse smacked her head and turned to Steve. ‘’Looks like he’s waking up. Good stuff. We’ve got a librarian attack victim coming in soon.’’

. . .

‘’Thanks for driving me home, brother,’’ said Steve, slumped in the passenger seat of his beloved Toyota Corolla. The nets were laid across the back seats, wrapped in bubble wrap and cloth.

‘’It’s the least I could do. I let Abby know we’re on our way back, so she’s cooking you a nice dinner.’’

‘’Oh boy, I am lucky! Wanna join us?’’

‘’Er, I don’t think Abby is too pleased with me right now.’’

‘’Right, right. Well don’t worry, I’ll tell her it was an accident. I know-’’ he said as Cecil tried to interrupt, ‘’You already tried to tell her that. But I think she’s a bit more likely to believe me.’’

‘’I’m sorry I ruined our day, Steve,’’ said Cecil, looking over at him. Steve’s face went flush with excitement.

‘’You didn’t ruin it at all!’’ he cried. ‘’We got most of the piranhas out, and I got to ride in an ambulance, and even take a nap. And I spent the whole day with you, big brother. Uh, you don’t mind me calling you that, do you?’’

‘’Nah. I think it’s neat, bro.’’


End file.
